Health and fitness tips for women to get in shape

Eating a balanced diet and exercising is a healthy combination that leads to a healthy lifestyle. Women want to get in shape and improve their health but often find it difficult to maintain the routine that works for them. Maintaining fitness requires careful attention to both diet regime and exercise routine.

Nowadays women handle both home and career responsibilities. Due to the stress of juggling between home and career, many women are facing health related issues like obesity, hormonal problems and poor fitness. Women are more prone to diseases than men. But complaining is not the solution. Follow these practical strategies and fitness tips to maintain your overall health.

Stay active throughout the day: Walk and talk with hands-free and keep standing while working at home. If you are a professional, take a short walk during lunch-time and take short breaks every hour to walk around. Make up your mind and start following these women's fitness tips immediately

Store your house with healthy snacks: If you have a habit of eating snacks throughout the day, take healthy snacks to keep the ailments away

Exercise regularly: Choose an exercise pattern as per your convenience. Try to adapt some strength training practices for at least 20 minutes thrice a week. Running and walking are also good for toning your entire body

Walk on treadmill: A 10-minute regular treadmill session will tone your upper body and pump your heart smoothly. Hold 3-5 pound dumbbell in each hand and set the speed of treadmill to brisk walking. Practice one minute set of biceps curls, side laterals, triceps extensions and standing triceps, one after another while walking

Do crunches: Crunching technique is one of the best body fitness tips for women if done properly. Usually women use their neck muscles rather than abs while doing crunches. It's a complete waste of time. Instead focus on abdominal muscles and press your tongue flush against the roof of your mouth while doing crunches

Eat a healthy breakfast daily: Maintain a proper diet with workout to stay fit and healthy. Add lots of fruits to your breakfast. Fresh fruits contain glucose that will keep your craving for sweets away. You can also include dry fruits to get energy

Drink lots of water: Water is essential for proper functioning of our body. Keep drinking water at regular intervals to stay hydrated

Maintain a chart of your progress: To stay motivated, make a fitness chart. Note down various workouts you are trying out and grade your progress. This will help you to notice improvements and keep you more focused

Reduce the intake of refined carbs: Limit your intake of refined carbohydrates like chocolates, cookies, white rice and honey. When you eat such foods, insulin level raises in the body which will increase fat

Don't overdo anything: Health and fitness training of an hour is enough. Never overdo any form of exercise as doing extra will make you tired and exhausted. Focus on limited health training exercises in a certain time period to make the training session joyful and effective

Be flexible: Sticking to a fixed schedule may not be possible for you all the times. If you have dedicated mornings for workouts and something comes out like a meeting, be open enough to accept it. Instead of sticking to a routine, think like you will go to the gym anytime in a day. Be flexible with your daily routine

Workout with your best friend: If you are bored to work-out alone, then call your buddy for a workout session. Working out with friends will help you stay motivated and achieve your goals. Working out in a company is full of fun

Stretching is important: Before starting exercise, warming up is highly important. Warm up will help to prevent any kind of muscle-injury during workout. Before starting any workout session, begin slowly and then increase the speed gradually

Do aerobic exercises: Aerobic exercises will get your heart-rate go up and improve your body to handle physical exertion. These exercises are must if you want to get in shape. Biking, jogging and swimming are best exercises for full body workout

Cut sugar, salt and unhealthy food from your diet: Sugar and salt are white poison. Avoid sugary drinks like soda, juice and other beverages; instead, eat fruit as a dessert and foods with healthy fats like omega-3. Minimize the amount of unhealthy foods to stay young and healthy

Don't focus on weight-loss: If you are just focusing on the numbers on the weighing scale, you may not get the desired results. Instead, your goal should be to maintain a healthy and fit life, by eating right food and following fitness tips

Eat fresh fruits and green vegetables: Eating fresh fruits and green leafy vegetable is one of the best fitness tips women should follow. Aim to fill your half plate with fresh fruits and fiber rich vegetables at each meal

Eat a balanced diet: If you are vegetarian, eat nuts, beans, tofu and seeds to get essential proteins. You should take carbohydrates in the form of whole grains such as oatmeal, soya bean, whole wheat bread and brown rice. Make healthy choices of unsaturated fats and vegetable oils

Pre-workout eating is must: Taking an energy bar before exercising in gym can actually pump up the energy levels as they are high in fiber and sugar. Instead, opt for bananas that can be digested quickly and also provide you extra energy

Keep an eye on your heart rate: Women should workout at a maximum of 75-85 per cent of their heart rate. If it's too low, means you are not working well. And if it's too high that means you are pushing yourself to a dangerous level. Monitor your heart rate while exercising to ensure that it doesn't significantly exceed the normal heart beat speed

Be happy: As they say, laughter is the best medicine and this is 100per cent true. When you are happy, your body releases feel good hormones that will kill your stress hormones. Laughter is best exercise to tone your face muscles.